Funny echo story....

[Shobu]

Had my most recent surgery on June 23rd this year, and post-op, I ended up losing count at about 8 different doctors that were checking in on me, writing orders, charging to my insurance etc. Anyway, I had an echo done at about 1 week post op in hospital, after getting my second AVR, this time with a new ON-X valve. My cardiologist was busy, so apparently a different cardiologist reviewed my echo. He reported that I appeared to have a severely stenotic and calcified valve that looked really bad, which got half the docs on my team all in a tizzy! I had no idea about all this excitement, even after my regular cardiologist came to see me later that day to tell me my echo looked great (he seemed pretty irritated about something, which is unusual for him in my experience) A couple of weeks later, my primary care doc told me all about it, and how angry my cardiologist was at the idiot who initially reviewed my echo. They were even completely different on the ejection fraction results as well, although that probably pales in comparison to not being able to tell the difference between a post-op tissue and mechanical valve.
And no, I was also told that the first doc to review the echo *wasn't* looking at an old pre-op one, in which case he would have actualy been right. LOL.
At least no-one tried to wheel me back in to the OR and open me up again before my regular cardio got a hold of the echo
Anyway, just thought I'd share my tale of a wacky (potential) medical misadventure.


--Dan

 

[AgilityDog]

Good Grief!
Rule number one, READ THE FILE.

 

[Jkm7]

Makes my stomach drop to my knees. We can only hope it's a brand new Med School graduate who is just beginning his 'practical' education. Thank goodness for our excellent, experienced Cardiologists.

 

[Lynlw]

So what Hospital do you use again?

 

[swim mom]

About 9 months before I had surgery I had a cardiologist tell me my problem was chest pain, not my mitral valve. He said "you only have trivial to mild regurgitation, it isn't a problem and probably never will be. Your problem is chest pain" I did ask him if he was sure he had my records because he had obviously not read them! Yes, my valve leaked strangely and was hard to read but I had a 1 year old TEE that showed moderate to severe regurgitation! He wouldn't listen and in fact later said he reviewed my echo and stood by his previous assessment! Thank goodness I was well educated about my condition so I felt confident to disagree.

 

[Bryan B]

Here's my recent "misadventure" from the last time I was in the hospital.

I was on Cardizem CD 360mg every day which I took in the morning. I was admitting into the hospital around 2PM and the nurse went over all of the meds I was taking and asked when I took my last dose. I gave her all of the details including the fact that I took my Cardizem CD (extended release) that morning. Duke has a policy that while in the hospital if there is a cheaper alternative to the extended release drug (example regular Lopressor versus Toprol XL...or regular Cardizem versus Cardizem CD) they will switch you to non extended release dose while in the hospital (I guess to save money). I'm surprised I didn't catch it myself but I guess since I had just been admitted into the hospital for the 2nd time in 2 months I wasn't really thinking, but they gave me a dose of regular Cardizem 90mg at 5PM. They gave me another dose of regular Cardizem 90mg at 11PM. That means that in approximately 12 hours I had taken 36 hours of Cardizem 90mg (which is a pretty high dose...trying to control my out of control a-flutter). I went to bed shortly after the 11pm dose and my resting heart rate on the telemetry monitor was 125bpm. I was woken up a couple of hours later with 6-8 nurses in my room. My heart rate had dropped to 40bpm. :eek2:

They were asking questions like "do you feel dizzy?" I said not really but you just woke me up. Every time they asked me a question I said I don't know because you just woke me up. My heart rate went back up and they let me go back to sleep. Less than an hour later they were all back in there with the doctor on duty as well. My heart rate had dropped to 38bpm. Same questions from them...same answers from me...lol (I think my heart enjoyed the break from 2 months of a resting heart rate of 125-140bpm). They pushed three 500ml saline bags into me and that seemed to stabilize the heart rate. It was the next day when it dawned on me that they had basically made a major medication error by giving me 180mg of Cardizem on top of the 360mg I had taken at around 10AM that morning. When I mentioned it only one person (my day nurse that day) agreed that was probably the cause of my sudden drop in my heart rate.

I don't know why I didn't think about it when they started feeding me more Cardizem after I had already had my daily dose, but that was a failure first on the doctor for not writing a hold on the order until the next morning, the nurse for not noticing that I had already had taken a 24 hour dose of Cardizem, and the pharmacy for not alerting either the doctor, nurse, or both. It turned out to be a non-event but I was pretty close to being in some serious trouble (and in the ICU) if my heart rate would have dropped much further.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Just more verification that WE need to Read ALL of our Test Reports and Monitor Tests and Medications,
not to mention getting Second Opinions when contradictiory reports are issued.

Makes me shudder to think that some Off-The-Wall interpretation by some unknown Doctor could result in a Major and potentially DANGEROUS change in Treatment Plan. SCARY!

'AL C'

 

[carolinemc]

Well, my experience was with a cardio doing blood pressure check on me, which never happened before with a cardio before. I was sitting up on the examine table when he proceeded to tell me that my blood pressure was 500. Not 500 over what. I was stunned and felt my blood pressure go up. I was thinking, shouldn't I be dead right now? I called my regular doctor and got things settled. I was so glad then. So I feel for you. What happened to you was funny. Mine too, later. Crazy things can happen in a doctors office.